Hackerspace favorite Power Racing Series needs funding to continue their 2012 season! They have set up an Indiegogo campaign to raise $10,000! Apparently they have two new t-shirt designs featuring actual PPPRS drivers on them.

This Wednesday, the 6th (and every first wednesday), is Arduino/non denominational microcontroller night @ heatsynclabs. This week Marc McMcomb from Microchip will join to show off and get feedback on the new Cerebot hardware from Digilent which use the familiar chipKIT™ MPIDE for development. Well also finish our previous discussions about about the challenges, and Microchip’s recent successes, in open sourcing their entire toolchain for the chipKIT™ product line.

PCB Design With KiCad at HackPittsburgh

On Saturday June 9th, come learn how to design a two-layer PCB using the free, open source, and multi-platform electronic design software tool KiCad to design circuit schematics and PCBs. We will start at 10am with a physical circuit prototype on a breadboard, and learn the whole process through entering in the schematic, linking each schematic part to a PCB footprint, arranging PCB footprints on the board, routing traces between each footprint (both manually and automatically), and exporting your design files for fabrication. We will also cover creating your own custom parts. After designing your PCB we will all submit our files to be fabricated at a quick-turn professional PCB manufacturer, and will meet a few weeks after the class for a follow-up class where you will solder together your custom-designed circuit board!

Young Gamers Summer Camp: Using the amazing power of video games, students will learn better communication, team-building, and leadership skills. As well as playing award-winning video games that are conducive to learning these valuable abilities, they will also learn about video game history from arcade to console to pc, and why it’s important for their next objective, which is working as a team to build a basic video game they can hack and tinker with long after the class ends.

Young Mechatronics Summer Camp: Students will learn how to use Arduino as a tool to alter the world around them in the true entrepreneur fashion. At the end of this class, students will walk away with new skills, new toys, and an amazing experience. The cost of this class includes supplies that will be available to take home upon completion of the camp.

Follow the above link for signup information, but please note that the prices will change after the 10th (Gamers) and 17th (Mechantronics) of June.

is an overnight camping trip in Kamogawa. The first day, people interested in learning pottery will attend a 90-minute workshop in Kamogawa where the pottery master there will teach how to make pottery. Each attendee will also make their own bizarre pottery object. At night time, we’ll be barbecuing up some meaty goodness, hanging out, taking in the fresh air, and generally loafing around. The second day is a free day and people can go to the Kamogawa beach, look around, or help Chris Harrington work on his farm.

The cost for the pottery workshop is 5000 yen and is optional. Campsite rental + transportation will likely be around 2000 yen per person. The price is subject to change, though but will be roughly around there. You can also rent things at the campsite such as tents, chairs, barbecue grills, etc.

3D Printer Build Off at Huntsville, AL’s Makers Local 256

We’re proud to announce that our next 3d printer build off will be at Makers Local 256 in Huntsville, AL on July 21st and 22nd 2012. Makers Local is the Huntsville Hackerspace and has been actively making and hacking since 2008.

We will be offering a deluxe version of the RepRap Prusa 3d Printer. We’ll spend 2 days building and showing you how to use your 3d printer. We will also being doing a group buy of plastic so everyone who is participating can benefit from a large order.

Space is limited, if you are interested in participating in the Hunstville, AL 3d Printer Build Off reserve your spot today!

Maui Makers Gets a Space

Its official, Maui Makers now has use of 1550+sqft of the F-2 Cafeteria building in Pu’unene, courtesy Hawaii Dept of Education. This is the building next to our container, so the basic location has not changed. However, now we have:

a large (34′ x 31′) open classroom
a kitchen (14 x 22) with two sinks, stove, and washer/dryer
a small (7 x 5) room w/built in shelves (and power breakers)
a larger (11 x 14) ‘office’ with shelves, 3 windows and working air conditioner
two bathrooms!! (outside)
AC Power galore.